Processing unknown film type - what is it?

[John H. Henderson]

Hello, experts,

A coworker's mother-in-law found a stash of old film that she'd been carrying fr om home to home over the last 30 years. There is 126, 127, and 620 rolls. Some of them were clearly Kodak Verichrome Pan, but there was some mystery film, too .

One 126 cartridge has the following on it:

"Famous Brand 126 Color Film - For Daylight or Blue Flash"

"Process G 25 - Made in Belgium - BD 365"

"CAUTION: This film can only be processed on our special equipment for exclusive triple-print (R) Process."

"Mail film and $4.25 to: Nat. Hdq., Box 7529, Phila., Pa."

Obviously, that is color film and some odd-ball process. There are also some 62 0 rolls from the same company. The licky label says,

"CAUTION: This film can only be processed on our special equipment for the exclu sive 36 picture process.

"If you have lost your envelope, send $2 and film to: Nat'l. Hdqrs., Box 7529, P hila., Pa. 19701."

There are NO other markings on the paper backing except "620 Exposed" and the fr ame numbers. Nothing says it's color.

Since the rolls holds 12 square pictures, I'm thinking that the "36 print proces s" is the same as the color triple-print process (12 exp. x R+G+B?.

Not wanting to spend and fortune for professional processing, and understanding that I may completely mess them up, he asked if I'd like to give them a shot. T hinking that this G25 may be an obselete process, I processed on roll of the 620 in XTOL, following Kodak's instructions for Verichrome Pan with a 2 stop push. I got images. They're not great in contrast, so next roll, I'll push some more , but they were actually better than the old Verichrome I processed without push ing. The fog wasn't really bad, either.

So, can anyone tell me more about what this film is I have? Has anybody else pu rposely (or maybe accidently and recorded his results) cross-processed color fil m in B&W chemistry to get B&W images?

[mike rosenlof]

It's possible that G-25 is long gone. It's also possible that it was something readily available at that time, but labeled to discourage people from taking the film to the drugstore.

I remember there were lots of 'Free Film!!' ads in magazines 30 years ago offering some type of film that probably had to be processed by the supplier - at less than wonderful prices. This is likely some of that stuff.

XTOL sounds like a good approach for this stuff.

[Wayne Crider]

May I suggest a clip test at least.

[Mark Baltor]

I worked for this company (triple-print) between 1968 and 1971. I believe they're out of business, now. The actual name of the company was: Film Corporation of America, and they were last located at 11621 Caroline Rd., Philadelphia. If memory serves G-25 was Gevacolor( they also distributed Mitsubishicolor; Ilfordcolor Mark IV and V; Ferraniacolor; and at least one I don't remember the name of...)"Triple-Print" was a cluster lens printing assembly which produced three prints.

[jack hill]

I remember this film from a lab in Toronto, early 70's, Abel's, now Qualex. It was processed in Ilford color neg chemistry at 76 F. The special equipment was actually an ancient Pako "automatic darkroom" with wooden hangers.

[Dee]

I have a roll of this film. I'd love to find someone who will process it, even if they don't use the triple picture feature. I found my roll in my sisters belongings after she passed away and suspect it is pictures of our children when they were young.

If anyone knows any place to get them developed, please let me know. Thanks!

[Mark Sampson]

Dee,

check out the work of "Gene M" on the photo.net Classic Cameras forum, or at his website, www.westfordcomp.com. He processes "found film" like yours and posts the results. I think he'd be happy to help.

[Terence Spross]

Ilford color neg chemistry at 76 F

Could the 76 degrees be a clue it was equivalent to C22?

Did the negatives you got appear to be a B&W emultion? - i.e. color negs processed in B&W chemistry can produce low contrast photos with a colored mask. If it looked the negs looked like Verichrome then its B&W.

You could clip a bit from the other films and examine them it the light - if you have a microscope, looking at the cross section of a color film will reveal its layers. (New film can be determined by its undeveloped color cast and be identified by comparison just by looking at its shade on both sides, but this is old and that causes too many variables. and what would you campare to? So go with examing the cross section of a sample and based on that best guess, develop another sample.

If your lucky enough to have an infra-red viewer you can view the negs under infared light after they have been in the developer a while to determine if more development is necessary. This skill is acquired by examining the process of a known film such as new Tri-X -- observe at 2/3 development time and at the end of the normal time. Remember what it looks like - to replicate with the mystery film. (I was lucky enough to be able to borrow an infared viewer once for a few days.)

If you new the film was orthochromatic then you could use a ordinary safelight to examine development. but the last of the Ortho film common availability in off brands was the early 60s - not the 70s.